When GTA 3 hit the market it changed the way people think about their gaming experience, for better or worse. Sure, plenty of games before that would be considered fully immersive, but the GTA series brought it to a new and exciting level that truly transformed the open-world gaming concept. A piece of that success was the level of interaction with the environment, including listening to radio stations that captured the essence of the GTA universe.
Who can forget listening to commercials for “Pets Overnight” or blasting classical music from your Mafia Sentinel? It made the experience that much more entertaining, and it wasn’t hard to find yourself driving around aimlessly listening to your favorite station. Even after hearing the same programs and songs hundreds of times, it remained an exciting part of the game.
Now you can bring that feeling to the real world with the release of the ‘GTA Radio’ app from developer Keshav Verma. Prepare to feel nostalgia like never before. You can tune into your favorite stations from the series, including stations from basically every incarnation of the game. So far, you can listen to stations from: Grand Theft Auto, GTA III, GTA Vice City, GTA Liberty City Stories, GTA Vice City Stories, GTA San Andreas, and GTA IV. Not every single station from these games is included, but the developer promises to keep working on updates that include even more stations.
There are a few caveats to this awesome concept, and they’re mostly concerning the sound quality. It’s not amazing, but it gets the job done. Don’t expect the crystal clear quality of your XM stations, but everything is still enjoyable. The possibilities are exciting, especially if you enjoy hooking up your device to your car stereo while driving. The temptation to run over pedestrians should be restrained at all costs, as we’re fairly confident that claiming a GTA flashback caused your rampage won’t hold up in court.
You can get the ‘GTA Radio’ app for free from Google Play today. It’s available for devices running Android 1.5 and up, and comes in at a relatively light 11MB. Keep in mind that not all of the stations play family friendly programming.
Source: Google Play